<j  it'  7   */U 


EPOSITORV 


B    P    i 


1008. 


United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 

BUREAU  OF   PLANT   INDUSTRY— Circular  No.   10. 
B.  T.   GALLOWAY.   Chief  of   Bureau. 


NOTES  ON  DRV  FARMING." 

By  William   M.  .1  audi  n  i  . 
Agronomist  in  Charg\   of  Experiments  with  Dry-Land  Cereals,  Grain 

Investigations. 


DRY-LAND  AGRICULTURE  IN  MONTANA. 

For  the  past  three  years  the  Montana  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  in  cooperation  with  certain  railroad  systems,  has  been  con- 
ducting experiments  in  dry-land  agriculture  in  various  sections  of  the 
State.  One  of  the  stations  is  located  near  Forsythe,  in  the  Yellow- 
stone Valley,  aboul  LOO  miles  east  of  Billings.  I  visited  this  station  on 
my  way  to  Bozeman  and  found  there  some  very  interesting  develop- 
ments. Dp  to  the  present  time  this  particular  section  of  Montana  has 
been  devoted  almost  entirely  to  grazing.  However,  as  a  result  of 
the  two  crops  harvested  on  this  experimental  farm,  many  of  the 
ranchers  are  now  either  selling  out  t  * »  prospective  farmers  or  have 
begun  farming  themselves. 

The  yields  so  far  obtained  there  have  been  most  satisfactory.  Tur- 
key Red  wheal  last  year  produced  58  bushels  to  the  acre,  while  a  num- 
ber of  other  winter  varieties  yielded  above  10  bushels.  A-  much  as  2 
tons  of  alfalfa  ha\  has  been  harvested  per  acre;  also  250  bushels  of 
potatoes,  60  bushels  of  oats,  and  other  hardy  crops  in  equally  large 
quant  it  ies. 

'The  altitude  of  this  station  is  between  2,500  and  3,000  feet,  and  the 
climate  is  much  milder  than  that  of  the  western  Dakotas.  The  aver- 
ige  annual   precipitation   i-  between    L3  and    \-<   inches.     Lasl   year, 

i  lie  observations  contained  in  this  i  ai  er  are  abstracted  from  n  progress  re 
porl  made  during  April  of  ihis  year  by  Mr.  Jardine,  relating  to  farming  in  the 
arid  sections  of  Montana,  L'tah,  ai  d  Colorado.  Mr.  Jardine  bas  bad  a  long  «'\ 
perience  in  arid  farming  in  L'tab  from  i">ih  a  scientific  and  a  practical  stand- 
point. His  bulletin  ou  Arid  Farming  investigations  i  N'o.  100  of  the  L'tah  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station  >  Is  t  the  !m>st  valuable  yel  issunl  on  this  sub- 
ject. B.  T.  Gallow  \"i  .  Physiologist  uml  Pathologist,  and  <l<i<j  of  Bun  au. 
14195    fir.    10     on 


2  NOTES    ON    DRY    FARMING. 

when  the  yields  above  mentioned  were  secured,  there  was  little  more 
than  13  inches  of  rainfall.  6  to  7  of  which  came  during  the  growing 

o  o  o 

season. 

There  is  every  indication  that  a  large  percentage  of  the  tillable  land 
of  eastern  Montana  heretofore. grazed  will  be  brought  under  cultiva- 
tion within  the  next  few  year-.  Each  month  new  settlers  are  moving 
into  this  country. 

My  chief  purpose  in  visiting  Montana  at  this  time  was  to  begin 
work  on  the  Fergus  County  substation,  recently  established.  The 
first  crops  are  to  be  seeded  this  spring,  but  owing  to  the  lateness  of 
the  season  it  was  impossible  for  me  to  accomplish  anything  by 
visiting  the  station  itself;  hence.  I  did  not  go  farther  than  Bozeman, 
Mont.,  where  I  met  Professor  Atkinson  and  Mr.  Nelson,  the  two  men 
in  charge  of  the  work.  Mr.  J.  S.  Cole,  recently  appointed  in  the 
Office  of  Dry-Land  Agriculture  Investigations,  accompanied  me  and 
remained  in  Montana  to  look  after  the  spring  planting.  Our  work 
will  be  thoroughly  established  there  this  spring.  We  are  planting 
this  year  in  plats  and  in  the  nursery  a  hundred  or  more  varieties  of 
spring  grains,  and  hope  to  secure  considerable  information  that  can 
be  used  immediately  to  good  advantage  by  the  farmers,  as  well  as 
to  accumulate  data  of  value  for  the  further  and  permanent  improve- 
ment of  crops  for  this  section. 

The  principal  grain  crop  now  grown  here  is  wheat.  The  two  main 
varieties  are  Turkey  Red  winter  wheat  and  Kubanka  durum  spring 
wheat.  The  winter  wheat  i>  preferable,  as  it  yields  10  to  -JO  bushels 
more  per  acre  than  the  best  spring  wheat  known.  Various  crops  are 
being  introduced  this  year,  looking  toward  the  elimination  of  the 
one-crop  system  of  farming  by  substituting  a  variety  of  crops  that 
can  be  grown  to  advantage  in  rotation. 

PLOWING    WITH    GASOLINE    TRACTION    EXOIXES. 

While  in  Montana  T  had  an  opportunity  to  observe  for  the  first 
time  a  gasoline  traction  engine  in  operation.  A  22-horsepower  outfit 
was  at  work  plowing  up  sod  land  on  the  open  prairie.  I  spent  one  day 
following  1 1  i i  —  engine  in  order  to  collect  reliable  data  on  its  perform- 
ance. From  the  information  obtained  at  this  time,  together  with 
that  previously  secured  from  reliable  men  who  had  had  experience 
with  gasoline  engines  in  plowing,  1  am  convinced  that  it--  success  is 
practically  assured.  The  gasoline  engine  is  quite  simple  in  its 
mechanism  and  is  easily  handled,  only  two  men  being  required  to 
operate  both  engine  and  plows. 

This  outfit  had  been  running  for  ten  days  and  had  averaged  dur- 
ing that  time  a  little  more  than  25  acres  a  day  on  heavy  -oil.  plowing 
to  a  depth  of  1  inches  and  turning  it  over  in  good  shape.    The  cost, 

[Clr.  10] 


NOTES  OK     i'i:\     FARM1  MG.  6 

including  labor,  was  aboul  s<>  cents  an  acre.  The  two  young  men 
operating  the  engine  were  inexperienced  hands,  and  yet  everything 

seemed  to  be  moving  -n thly.     They   informed  me  that   they  had 

thus  far  met  with  no  serious  delays  on  account  of  breakages.  The 
contract  price  for  1  reaking  sod  land  in  Montana  varies  from  >l  to  $5 
per  acre.  It  would  require  25  horses  and  5  men,  at  a  cost  of  not  less 
than  $3.50  to  $4.50  per  acn  .  to  do  the  same  amount  of  work  per  day 
thai  these  two  young  men  were  doing  with  their  engine. 

The  gasoline-engine  proposition  for  plowing  and  other  farming 
operations  is  entirely  feasible  where  farming  is  dune  on  a  large  scale, 
luit  it  would  not  be  practicable  for  the  small  farmer  to  own  and 
operate  an  outfit.  However,  a  number  of  -mall  fanner-  could  join 
together  in  the  purchase  of  an  engine  without  involving  themselves 
a-  heavily  a-  by  purchasing  the  horses  necessary  to  do  the  same 
amount  of  work.'  This  method  is  followed  in  the  West  in  buying 
thrashing  outfits  and  i-  found  thoroughly  practicable. 

If  it  i-  possible  to  produce  crops  at  a  cost  of  $2  i,,  si  less  per  acre 
by  the  use  of  gasoline  engines  on  our  dry  farm-  this  method  should 
lie  adopted.  The  saving  would  lie  remarkable,  especially  where  the 
average  yield  of  wheat  per  acre  probably  doe-  not  exceed  15  bushels. 
Some  20  of  these  plowing  outfits  have  been  placed  in  Montana  this 
year,  in  my  judgment  the  gasoline  plowing  outfit  is  here  to  stay 
and  will  aid  materially  in  the  cheap  production  of  farm  crop-  on  our 
dry  land-. 

DRY-LAND  AGRICULTURE  IN  UTAH. 

At  Logan,  Utah,  I  -pent  one  day  at  the  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station  and  two  day-  visiting  among  the  dry  farmer-  id'  the  Bear 
River  Valley  of  northern  Utah  and  the  Malad  Valley  of  southern 
Idaho.  These  two  valleys  oiler  splendid  opportunities  to  study  dry- 
land farming  where  it  has  been  practiced  for  the  last  forty  years  under 
an  annual  rainfall  of  less  than  1:5  inches,  with  an  average  of  less  than 
.">  inches  during  the  growing  season.  ( renerally  speaking,  the  farming 
method-  in  tin-  region  are  not  above  the  average.  Very  frequently 
the  l.e-t  of  farmer-  crop  their  land  twice  with  one  plowing,  and  only 
occasionally  do  they  rotate  their  crop-  or  summer  fallow  their  Held-. 
Mo  i  of  them  consider  that  they  can  make  at  least  a  good  living  if 
the\  can  he  -ure  id'  L5  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  each  year,  a-  they 
figure  that  il  does  not  cosl  them  more  than  S|  an  acre  to  produce 
a  crop. 

Ai  Nephi,  Utah,  where  we  are  cooperating  with  the  Utah  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station  this  year,  we  arc  doing  more  extensive 
work  with  dry-land  cereal-  than  at  any  other  point.  Mr.  I'.  I ). 
Farrell  is  in  charge  of  this  farm  and  i-  much  interested  in  the  work. 


«  In  the  West,  1,300  to  1,600  pound  work  bi  from  $200  to  s:;oo  each. 

[Clr.  i"i 


4  NOTES    ON    Dm    FARMING. 

We  have  planted  at  this  station  about  all  the  varieties  known  to  be 
at  all  worth  while  and  hope  to  obtain  much  useful  information  here. 
Rust  epidemics  and  insect  pests  are  practically  unknown  in  this 
area.  The  only  adverse  condition  with  which  We  have  to  deal  is 
drought :  hence,  any  variety  found  to  be  superior  in  yielding  capacity 
will  indicate  its  ability  for  maximum  production  with  a  minimum 
amount  of  moisture.  "We  have  our  work-  so  arranged  as  to  he  able 
to  watch  the  development  of  individual  plants,  and  thus  secure  data 
of  a  very  reliable  nature  looking  toward  the  development  of  new 
types  of  superior  quality. 

DRY-LAND   AGRICULTURE   IN    COLORADO. 

In  Colorado  I  visited  the  dry  farm  of  Mr.  E.  R.  Parsons,  located 
23  miles  southeast  of  Denver,  on  the  Colorado  and  Southern  Railroad, 
near  Parker-.  Mr.  Parsons  is  a  very  intelligent  Englishman,  lie 
came  to  this  country  from  the  Transvaal.  South  Africa,  where  he 
had  considerable  experience  in  dry  farming.  lie  has  a  commercial 
orchard,  which  was  set  out  in  1895.  Mr.  Parsons  i-  now  independ- 
ently wealthy,  and  T  am  informed  that  he  has  made  nearly  all  of  his 
money  out  of  his  dry  farm.  lie  say-  that  the  success  obtained  in 
producing  crops  without  irrigation  in  eastern  Colorado  will  depend 
on  the  man. 

Mr.  Parsons  has  been  living  on  this  farm  since  1886,  and  is  there- 
fore familiar  with  the  whole  of  eastern  Colorado  and  thoroughly 
competent  to  speak  intelligently  on  the  condition-  obtaining  in  this 
part  of  the  Great  Plains.  He  states  positively  (and  his  farm  will 
bear  him  out  in  his  statement-)  that  there  is  no  sane  reason  why  the 
average  farmer  can  not  succeed  on  the  plains  of  Colorado  if  he  will 
farm  intelligently. 

The  orchard  is  planted  on  land  sloping  to  the  north  and  west. 
The  soil  is  a  very  heavy  clay.  It  is  300  to  500  feet  to  water.  The 
annual  precipitation  averages  about  13  to  15  inches.  Last  year  the 
precipitation  was  13  inches.  Five  to  7  acres  are  planted  to  cherry 
trees  of  the  varieties  Montmorency  and  Mofrello,  which  are  now  10 
years  old.  the  first  named  being  the  most  hardy  and  drought  resistant, 
and  hence  the  preferable  variety.  Mi'.  Parsons  has  secured  from 
this  orchard  on  an  average  1  crate  of  cherries  to  the  tree  during  the 
past  three  years,  except  last  year,  when  they  were  frozen  down  at 
the  time  all  fruit  was  frozen  in  Colorado.  He  has  about  120  trees 
planted  to  the  acre  and  receive-  s:;  a  crate  tor  his  cherries  delivered 
in  Denver.  lie  also  has  about  1  acres  of  apple  trees  now  bearing 
fruit.  The  10-year-old  trees  are  bearing  about  1  bushel-  to  the  tree. 
lie  ha-  more  than  100  tree-  to  the  acre,  but  has  since  decided  that  this 
is  too  clo-e  planting,  and  in  hi-  new  orchard,  recently  set  out.  the 
[Cir.  10] 


NOTES   OS    !>K\     i  VRM IXG.  5 

trees  are  placed  about  10  feel  apart,  or30  trees?  to  the  acre.  The 
Jonathan,  Rome  Beauty,  and  Ben  Davis  seem  to  be  the  most  profit- 
able varieties  to  grow  in  this  particular  locality. 

In  addition  to  his  cherry  and  apple  orchard,  Mr.  Parsons  has  I 
acres  of  currant  bushes  of  the  London  Market  variety.  These  arc 
planted  s  feet  apart  each  way.  During  the  past  three  seasons  he 
has  taken  from  each  of  the  5-year-old  bushes  1  gallon  of  currants, 
realizing  1">  cents  per  gallon.  In  L90G  Mr.  Parsons  realized  in  cash 
from  hi-  orchard  si. .Mm.  This  was  in  addition  to  fruit  necessary 
for  home  consumption  and  generous  distribution  among  friends. 

Considerable  alfalfa,  corn,  ami  wheat  are  also  grown  by  Mr.  Par- 
sons; m  fact,  everything  necessary  t"  feed  his  annual-.  Ill-  corn- 
crib  was  filled  with  excellent  corn,  samples  of  which  1  brought  to 
the  Department.  This  last  winter  he  fattened  l"1'  head  of  beef 
steers  on  alfalfa  grown  on  his  farm  without  irrigation.  IK'  has 
harvested  each  year  from  l.1,  to  %1\  ton-  of  excellent  hay  to  the  acre. 
Turkey  Red  wheat  yielded  him  last  year  a  little  more  than  l<>  bushels 
to  the  acre. 

During  L907  .Mr.  Parsons  produced  h>  bushels  of  corn  to  the  acre 
on  -oil  land  that  was  plowed  '.'  inches  deep.  This  i-  a  little  contrary 
to  the  general  belief  a-  to  what  can  hi'  done  on  sod  land.  The  general 
practice  is  to  plow  sod  as  shallowly  a-  possible,  in  order  that  it  may 
mi  the  heiier  during  tic  summer.  Mr.  Parsons,  however,  in  his 
twenty  years'  experience  on  a  dry-land  farm  ha-  obtained  far  better 

results  by   plowing  the  sod   deeply. 

Early  Ohio  potatoes  have  been  found  most  profitable  for  hi-  sec- 
tion. The  best  yields  are  always  obtained  from  this  variety,  planted 
about  April   1. 

Mr.  Parsons  attributes  hi-  success  i"  the  thoroughness  with  which 
he  cultivates  hi-  -oil.  He  never  plow-  his  land  less  than  '.»  to  1-2 
inches  deep,  whether  it  he  -od  or  otherwise.  This  i-  usually  done 
with  a  hand  plow  pulled  by  four  large  horses.  Mr.  Parsons  doe-  not 
approve  of  the  disk  plow  now  so  commonlj'  used  by  our  dry-land 
farmer-.  In  this  respect  I  heartily  agree  with  him.  Sod  land  es- 
pecially should  he  turned  over  completely,  in  order  that  the  -od  may 
rapidly  and  fully  decaj  and  ai  the  same  time  serve  a-  a  blanket  to 
retain  the  moisture  that  has  fallen  and  accumulated  in  the  -nil  pre- 
vious to  plowing.  Tin-  can  not  he  accomplished  with  a  disk  plow. 
The  disk  twists  and  breaks  up  the  -od.  leaving  ii  in  clod-,  thus  pre- 
senting a  very  loose  and  uneven  surface,  which  permits  a  U-r^ 
circulation  of  air  and  thus  fa\  or-  rapid  evaporation  of  moisture  from 

the    plowed    land.       <  )li    the   other    hand,    where    the    sod    i-    turned    n\cr 

completely  the  moisture  is  retained  during  the  entire  summer,  thus 

[Clr 


6  NOTES    ON    DRY    FARMING. 

enabling  the  fanner  to  prepare  a  favorable  seed  bed  for  planting  to 

winter  grain — t lie  crop  that  now  predominates  in  eastern  Colorado. 

In  this  connection  I  may  state  that  one  of  the  greatest   mistakes 

new  settler-  are  making  in  breaking  up  their  land  on  the  plains  is  in 
the  use  of  the  disk  plow  instead  of  the  moldboard  breaking  plow. 
This  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  with  the  disk  plow,  which  is  of 
somewhat  lighter  draft,  the  fanner  can  plow  up  his  land  more  easily 
and  more  rapidly.  The  results  obtained  from  this  hasty  method  are. 
however,  fully  evident  at  harvesl  time.  In  my  judgment  the  use  of 
the  disk  plow  should  be  discouraged. 

Work  at  the  Akron  substation,  Colorado,  is  progressing  nicely. 
Although  the  land  was  broken  up  for  the  first  time  last  June,  it  is 
now  in  fairly  good  condition.  Winter  wheat  seeded  in  September 
and  as  late  as  November  came  through  the  winter  in  good  condition. 
In  most  places  there  is  a  stand  of  95  to  100  per  cent.  About  a  half 
inch  of  rain  fell  there  April  L6.  This  practically  insured  a  good 
stand  of  spring  grain.  At  the  time  of  my  visit.  April  23,  most  of 
the  spring  grain  and  all  the  winter  wheat  were  up  and  showing  a 
strong  growth. 

From  Akron  along  the  Burlington  Railroad  en  route  for  St.  Louis 
I  observed  many  excellent  fields  of  winter  wheat.  Considerable 
farming  is  being  done  in  this  territory  this  year,  and  while  the  pre- 
cipitation since  February  1  has  been  very  light  the  crops  look  prom- 
ising, anil  those  farmers  with  whom  I  had  an  opportunity  to  talk 
are  very  confidenl  that  this  year  will  be  a  successful  one. 

Approved : 

James  Wilson, 

Se<  n  ta 1 1/  of  .  Vgrh  ulture. 

Washington,  D.  ('..  May  15,  1908. 

[Cir.    10] 

O 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/farminOOunit 


UNIVERSITY  OF   FLORIDA 


3  1262  08929  0166 


